Bravo Air Race

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It's a strange idea for a game, but it works... somehow

By IGN Staff

Bravo Air Race, known as ReciproHeat 5000 in Japan, was one of the stand-out titles at the recent spring Tokyo Game Show. T-HQ were undoubtedly privy to this information, for they snapped it up for the US before you could say "Racing airplanes?" No matter that it's a fundamentally warped premise - racing classic airplanes through tight cities and canyons is way fun.

Pick from a variety of vintage planes, from WWI biplanes to the elusive stealth bomber, and take to one of four courses. The planes handle according to their construction, with some slow but agile, and others like rockets with broken steering wheels. Stick with the slower ones until you've learned the courses - they can get pretty hairy.

All of the tracks are confined to narrow crevices. Whether you're in the city, in the mountains, or on an ice flow, you're going to have to navigate between too-close-for-comfort walls. Occasionally you'll have to fly over or under a bridge or other dangerous obstruction. Don't bother trying to fly above the trench - you'll get reprimanded and slowed right down.

To fully enjoy this game, it is essential that reality be suspended in favor of arcade antics. Crashing into another plane deep in a canyon would normally spell out F-I-R-E-B-A-L-L but here it merely results in a mild loss of speed and an unpleasant crunching sound.

Bravo Air Race needs a little work before it's released this fall, most notably in the form of pop-up, which is so bad it could mar the enjoyment of the game. This aside, the game could prove a fun diversion to the usual racing titles currently clogging up the shelves down at your local store.